Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27764035›Full record

SynthesisPain2017

The persistence of the effects of acupuncture after a course of treatment: a meta-analysis of patients with chronic pain.

H MacPherson, E A Vertosick, N E Foster, G Lewith, K Linde, K J Sherman, C M Witt, A J Vickers, Acupuncture Trialists' Collaboration

Registry-linked trialAbstract readMeta-AnalysisReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Pain, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03854188 (Acupuncture for Relieving Chronic Pelvic Pain), which is not on this map. Cited by 85 papers, 14 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
85citing papers in PubMed, 14 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT03854188 nawithdrawnnot on this mapstarted 2021, after this paper: background citation

Acupuncture for Relieving Chronic Pelvic Pain

TypeinterventionalSponsorWilliam Xu, MDRan2021 to 2021Enrolled0ConditionsPelvic PainArmsAcupuncture
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

85 citing papers in PubMed, 14 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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  4. BeyondFrontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025
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25 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

H MacPhersonDepartment of Health Sciences, University of York, York, United Kingdom.
E A VertosickDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
N E FosterResearch Institute for Primary Care and Health Sciences, Keele University, Keele, United Kingdom.
G LewithDepartment of Primary Care, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom.
K LindeInstitute of General Practice, Technische Universität München, München, Germany.
K J ShermanGroup Health Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA.
C M WittInstitute for Complementary and Integrative Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
A J VickersDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
Acupuncture Trialists' Collaboration

Funding

X-RAY CRYSTALLOGRAPHYP30CA008748 · NCI · SLOAN-KETTERING INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RES · PI SELWYN M VICKERS · 1985 to 2026
$347.4M
Acupuncture Trialists' Collaboration: meta-analysis of chronic pain trialsR01AT006794 · NCCIH · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · PI VICKERS, ANDREW J · 2011 to 2015
$1.6M
Acupuncture Trialists' Collaboration: meta-analysis of chronic pain trialsR21AT004189 · NCCIH · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · PI VICKERS, ANDREW J · 2008 to 2010
$604k
Department of Health NIHR-RP-011-015NCCIH NIH HHS R01 AT006794NCCIH NIH HHS R21 AT004189NCI NIH HHS P30 CA008748
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

There is uncertainty regarding how long the effects of acupuncture treatment persist after a course of treatment. We aimed to determine the trajectory of pain scores over time after acupuncture, using a large individual patient data set from high-quality randomized trials of acupuncture for chronic pain. The available individual patient data set included 29 trials and 17,922 patients. The chronic pain conditions included musculoskeletal pain (low back, neck, and shoulder), osteoarthritis of the knee, and headache/migraine. We used meta-analytic techniques to determine the trajectory of posttreatment pain scores. Data on longer term follow-up were available for 20 trials, including 6376 patients. In trials comparing acupuncture to no acupuncture control (wait-list, usual care, etc), effect sizes diminished by a nonsignificant 0.011 SD per 3 months (95% confidence interval: -0.014 to 0.037, P = 0.4) after treatment ended. The central estimate suggests that approximately 90% of the benefit of acupuncture relative to controls would be sustained at 12 months. For trials comparing acupuncture to sham, we observed a reduction in effect size of 0.025 SD per 3 months (95% confidence interval: 0.000-0.050, P = 0.050), suggesting approximately a 50% diminution at 12 months. The effects of a course of acupuncture treatment for patients with chronic pain do not seem to decrease importantly over 12 months. Patients can generally be reassured that treatment effects persist. Studies of the cost-effectiveness of acupuncture should take our findings into account when considering the time horizon of acupuncture effects. Further research should measure longer term outcomes of acupuncture.

Indexed as

Acupuncture TherapyAnimalsChronic PainHumans

Identifiers

PMID27764035
PMCPMC5393924

What OpenQuestion holds

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Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.